| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: in want of nothing. Oh she was satisfied - and why shouldn't she
be? Why shouldn't she have been surprised at his coming the first
day - for all the good she had ever got from him? As the lady
continued to hold her attention Paul turned from her with a strange
irritation in his complicated artistic soul and a sort of
disinterested disappointment. She was so happy that it was almost
stupid - a disproof of the extraordinary intelligence he had
formerly found in her. Didn't she know how bad St. George could
be, hadn't she recognised the awful thinness -? If she didn't she
was nothing, and if she did why such an insolence of serenity?
This question expired as our young man's eyes settled at last on
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: necessity of retribution. The wicked would be too well off if their evil
deeds came to an end. It is not to be supposed that an Ardiaeus, an
Archelaus, an Ismenias could ever have suffered the penalty of their crimes
in this world. The manner in which this retribution is accomplished Plato
represents under the figures of mythology. Doubtless he felt that it was
easier to improve than to invent, and that in religion especially the
traditional form was required in order to give verisimilitude to the myth.
The myth too is far more probable to that age than to ours, and may fairly
be regarded as 'one guess among many' about the nature of the earth, which
he cleverly supports by the indications of geology. Not that he insists on
the absolute truth of his own particular notions: 'no man of sense will be
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: Pudd'nhead Wilson, in order that they might get a favorable impression
of him in advance and be prepared to like him. This scheme succeeded--
the favorable impression was achieved. Later it was confirmed and
solidified when Wilson proposed that out of courtesy to the strangers
the usual topics be put aside and the hour be devoted to conversation upon
ordinary subjects and the cultivation of friendly relations and
good-fellowship--a proposition which was put to vote and carried.
The hour passed quickly away in lively talk, and when it was ended,
the lonesome and neglected Wilson was richer by two friends than he
had been when it began. He invited the twins to look in at his
lodgings presently, after disposing of an intervening engagement,
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